h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The best comedy series on radio - ever - was The Burkiss Way, that broadcast on Radio Four between 1977 and 81. It was written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, who later went on as seperate entities to write for TV: cf. "One Foot in the Grave", where surreal things happen to the very ordinary retiree Victor Meldrew.

The radio surrealism, word-play and savage parody of TBW made it mandatory listening for a generation of sixth-formers and it is remembered with fond appreciation.

(OK, h2g2 began as radio, but is this a sci-fi series with comedy, or a sitcom set in space, as opposed to a clasically BBc sketch format comedy show like TBW?)

Incidentally, DNA's footnotes to the collected scripts of h2g2 contain the illuminating titbit that TBW writer Andrew Marshall (a frequent contributor to the messageboards on Radio Seven, btw) was the original inspiration, in character and demeanour, for Marvin the Paranoid Android...